The scene is the closing stages of last year’s Stockholm Diamond League 3,000 metres. Jacob Kiplimo, Uganda’s half marathon world record holder and an Olympic medalist, heads a quartet of runners approaching the final bend on his way to what is expected to be a routine win. Trailing him are Kenya’s Cornelius Kemboi and Stewart McSweyn of Australia. We know that because the commentator says so. The fourth of the leading pack is an unidentified man in a plain white singlet.
Entering the home straight, the man in white moves into second place. Grasping for his name, the commentator suggests it is an athlete from Burundi. He is wrong, but the man in white is accustomed to being invisible. Only when the man pulls alongside Kiplimo and passes him approaching the finish line does the commentator realise his error, correctly identifying a life-changing victory for Dominic Lobalu.
